Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

The Helmet Update

Volume 32, #3, October 15, 2014

Anti-Concussion Helmet

We are often asked why there is no anti-concussion helmet on the market.

One major reason is the thickness of the energy management material required. So we asked two noted helmet experts to estimate how thick a helmet made of today's EPS foam would have to be to keep the g's below 100 in the CPSC impact test that uses a two meter drop on the flat anvil. They prepared a paper detailing the various considerations.

The result: the helmet would be very thick. We have a new page up with the research and the mushroom helmet that you may find amusing:

There are other materials, of course, but helmets made of them are similar in thickness to EPS helmets. And there are no published test results indicating that there would be a major difference in thickness.